>>I have seen and heard about more fall supersedure swarms this year than ever before – a lot with virgin queens...

I had an interesting development.  I raised a young queen to try to overwinter in a strong nuc as a spare for next spring.  She's a Carniolan daughter and of good size.  She started laying a few days ago.  I checked on her yesterday and found a very nice, larger-than-expected pattern and a couple of queen cells at the bottom of a frame with eggs.

I was surprised to find queen cells at this time of the year.  I've been feeding this nuc to give it plenty of winter stores.  Perhaps they feel a bit crowded and think they should prepare to swarm... although they still have a frame they are drawing out.

I suppose this behavior could be genetic.  Her mother's hive typically has a single queen cell most of the time.  I've heard Russian bees typically maintain a back-up queen cell but I have not seen/heard of this behavior with the Carniolans.  Has anyone seen this?

Waldemar
Long Island, NY

PS>  My colonies stopped raising drones and I saw a few drones being dragged out from the hives.  Yet, there are still numerous drones in the hives.  It has been rather warm here although the weather is now turning cooler.  Drone evictions should increase now...

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